JPJ

I don't know the internal layout of the AG500, but its possible that the input socket is surface mounted to the preamp circuit board. Over time, the action of plugging in and unplugging leads could have caused a crack in one of the solder joints causing the scratchiness and crackling. Sounds like you need to visit your friendly local amp tech.

I've just picked up a TC Electronics BG500 2x10 secondhand. It's one hell of a lot of combo for not very much money.

Sorry to hear how this has turned out. Hopefully you'll be able to get the project back on the rails and fall back in love with what will be a stunning bass. Mind, that gold flake can be a bugger to spray so I'd make sure that your next 'luthier' has the correct spraying equipment to do this properly. I shall be following your progress as I really fancy a set of those Thunderbucker 66's for my next project and I'm keen to hear how you get on with them.

Thanks for the input folks, I'm still unsure but today I plotted the Overwater shape on top of my earlier Thunderbird drawing, both are to the same scale. As you can see the Overwater is a much smaller bodied bass than the Thunderbird and whilst it sort of follows the Thunderbird outline at the bottom end, by the time you reach about one third along the length of the body, its substantially different. Food for thought as it should be possible to come up with a body shape that pays homage to both designs without directly copying either of them. [URL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JPJ/media/IMG_1306_zpsn5gnxqwk.jpg.html][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v208/JPJ/IMG_1306_zpsn5gnxqwk.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Question for all the self-builders out there: Do you ever stray away from building a certain body shape because it feels wrong to use someone else's design? To explain my question, I've recently been considering a 'Fenderbird' for my next home build and have got as far as drawing up the body plan. Looking at the drawing it's plain to see where the legendary neck dive comes from and that got me thinking about the alternatives. Being a huge Overwater fanboi (I own two already, neither of which will be leaving my possession whilst my heart is still working) I'm drawn to the Original series body shape that, for those who don't already know, adds a top horn to what is basically a Thunderbird body shape. The problem is that even on the secondhand market, an Original series bass is well out of my budget. Now I could quite easily modify my Thunderbird body plan to replicate the Overwater, but whereas I have no issues building either a Fender or Gibson shaped bass, the thought of doing the same with the Overwater seems morally wrong to me! Perhaps it's the thought of Chris May jumping I his car and hoofing it the short distance over the A69 to rap me firmly on the knuckles for even contemplating such a act of IP theft/copyright infringement that's putting me off. I know we had a similar debate on here over on the Limelight thread regarding the use of Fender logos, but that was in a commercial context. Am I alone in this or does anyone else consider the issue of design ownership before getting the router out?

That sir, is a man sized rig. When does the stadium tour kick off then

[quote name='lonestar' timestamp='1422630240' post='2674877'] i wish that I had some money. i'd be interested in the 5string aspiration elite. Anybody tried one ? Shame they're no longer being made [/quote] I tried one of the early Aspiration fivers and my only complaint at the time was that the neck, particularly the join between the maple and the rosewood was a bit 'sharp' to the hand. Other than that the Aspiration compared favourably to my UK built Perception.

[quote name='Rumple' timestamp='1422533936' post='2673745'] Have you tried this before? does it give a nice aged look? [/quote] Personally, I wouldn't bother with the tinted nitro. Firstly, it could react badly with the modern plastic of the scratch plate and secondly, it will almost certainly flake off in later life. My preferred method of ageing a scratch plate is wire wool to reduce the sheen concentrating hardest on the areas where picks and finger nails would come into contact (above and under the E & A strings just in front of the neck pickup).

[quote name='AgentCooper' timestamp='1422485817' post='2673412'] Real excitement is awaiting a delivery from my own fair County. Mojo Pickups of Halifax are building me some of their (anything but) standard 8/8.6k Ohm Pre CBS spec beauties (Bobbins were done on Monday). At same time Marc uses Crazyparts.de TVT CTS Pots in his harnesses so going to have a Vol/Vol/Tone loom done and try a 0.033µF Paper in oil Cap. Lush ! [/quote] Mojo Pickups are certainly the business. I fitted a set of three of their lipstick pickups to a friends Squier Bass VI and they were amazing quality units.

I was also watching that one on the 'bay but a chronic lack of funds meant no bidding from me :-) Congratulations on scoring a lovely bass.

[quote name='spyder' timestamp='1422210397' post='2669900'] Really gassing for a Mike Lull T Bird or an original Gibson. Credit card just needs to be spanked. (g) [/quote] That makes two of us, although I don't think I need the extra 20% of the Mike Lull JA model In fact, I have this week drawn up a body plan for a Thunderbird body as I contemplate building a Fenderbird. I really should finish the Stingray first though

I always find its a balance between neck relief and bridge saddle height. Too much relief will make the bass difficult to play in the 'money' area around the 5th & 7th frets. As the buzzing is only at the first and second frets, I'd leave the relief alone and try raising the bridge saddles a quarter tun at a time.

Having just scaled out a Thunderbird plan I know that the stock bass is long, but 20% extra?

[quote name='Muppet' timestamp='1422097994' post='2668631'] That's shocking. You got me worried so I checked inside my BG250 combo. Happy to report that theres some damping in there. It's the same white 'fluffy' stuff that's also inside my Markbass combo so I assume it's ok. Next step, check the RS cabs...... [/quote] Pleased to hear that!

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1422036957' post='2668117'] Outstanding presentation from the man from Orange [/quote] He only needed to add that 'this one goes up to eleven' and he'd have had the job in Spinal Tap

First off, I'd say 'performance' follows practice and regular gigging. Once you get comfortable with the material, your band mates and playing in front of an audience, you'll find you have more mental time to think about your moves and facial expressions. Secondly, most places we play have such small playing areas that as a five piece, movement is strictly as required and co-ordinated. Thirdly, if you all enjoy what you are doing, then just smiles and silly faces between band members allows more audience 'contact' than playing with your bass behind your head whilst doing the splits ever will. If you don't enjoy what your doing, no amount of sharp moves will disguise the fact that your just doing your job.

Having just had a look inside my BG500 combo, I hope they've remembered to fit some damping in these new cabs

So having lived with her for a couple of weeks, I was finding it nigh on impossible to dial in 'my sound'. Every combination of settings seemed to come with an inherent hard edgy midrange sound that try as I might, I couldn't dial out. Remembering the thread on here about cabinet damping, I decided to have a look behind the speakers to see whether there was any damping fitted as standard. [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]So today, I whipped out the speakers and had a look inside. Surprise surprise, when I got the speakers out, I found myself staring into a big empty mdf box with not a shred of damping material anywhere. Having some left over from an earlier project, I set to with the scissors and staple gun covering the back, sides, top and the top of the shelf port. Having reinstalled the speakers and refitted the sturdy grill, I fired up the combo and WOW what a massive difference. The response of the cab is much deeper sounding and very 'natural' with no harshness or brittleness to the tone whatsoever. The difference is so huge I initially thought I must have dialled up the bass control by accident.[/font][/color] [color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif] [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Then I got to thinking, this combo wasn't cheap when it was originally purchased, yet a respectable brand like TC Electronics hadn't taken the time to fit 50p's worth of acoustic damping in the cabinet. I hope they were a little more careful with their flagship RS cabs? [/font][/color]

I recently picked up a secondhand TC Electronics BG500 combo off this here forum. I was initially very impressed with this combo (see my other thread) but the more I got to know the amp, the less I liked the sound coming out of the cabinet. To describe my issues, firstly, it didn't matter how I adjusted the tone controls, I couldn't get rid of that hard edgy mid range sound that really didn't suit my style of playing at all. Secondly, minor tweaks of the tone controls had huge impact on the tone and the overall volume. So today, remembering this thread, I decided to whip the speakers out and have a look inside to see whether there was any damping material in there. Surprise surprise, when I got the speakers out, I found myself staring into a big empty mdf box with not a shred of damping material anywhere. Having some left over from an earlier project, I set to with the scissors and staple gun covering the back, sides, top and the top of the shelf port. Having reinstalled the speakers and refitted the sturdy grill, I fired up the combo and WOW what a massive difference. The response of the cab is much deeper sounding and very 'natural' with no harshness or brittleness to the tone whatsoever. The difference is so huge I initially thought I must have dialled up the bass control by accident. Then I got to thinking, this combo wasn't cheap when it was originally purchased, yet a respectable brand like TC Electronics hadn't taken the time to fit 50p's worth of acoustic damping in the cabinet. I hope they were a little more careful with their flagship RS cabs.

When I blew two of the four PAS speakers in my Goliath II 4x10, I took a punt on a set of four Eminence Deltalite's. They have made the cab slightly different sounding (a bit more low mid at the cost of a bit of bottom end girth) but in a very useable way to my ears. I opted for the Deltalites based on advice received from the lads at www.lean-business.co.uk who supplied said speakers next day.

I use the Studiospares one, great bit of kit and saves hours when fault finding 'that' bundle of dead XLR leads :-)

[quote name='thebrig' timestamp='1421961461' post='2667255'] I am thinking of getting a Gibson Thunderbird because I think will be well suited to the new band I am in, we play mainly southern rock which includes many Skynyrd songs as you would expect. [/quote] Remember that Leon Wilkeson is as often pictured using a Fender Jazz as he is with a Thunderbird, and he is a famous user of the Fenderbird which he allegedly got from John Entwistle. In the later years (post plane crash) he mainly used the Jazz, or a Pedulla and only really used the Thunderbird on Freebird. I've not owned a Thunderbird so I can't answer your specific questions but I have owned a Spector Rex and found the neck dive and forward flip too annoying. BTW, my main gig is a southern rock band covering a lot of Skynyrd stuff. Having said all that, I've spent today scaling up a full scale plan for my own Fenderbird project :-)

No problems here either. Wedding ring in usual position and what was my engagement ring on my little finger. Can't for the life of me remember whether it felt strange at first, but I've been playing for nigh on 28 years like this and don't plan on changing it anytime soon :-)

I was suffering from a very weak E string and after a bit of investigation, I found the bass side piezo was dead. These Artec one's cost only £12 each so I took a gamble on them and so far its paid off. As I said in the earlier post, they are much better quality than the original Stagg ones and the Piezo element is longer too, allowing me to loop them round in the bridge recess which seems to have the effect of giving a much warmer sound.

[quote name='Erik' timestamp='1421941148' post='2666890'] Are the new piezo cables a direct replacement? I mean, do they have little jack plugs that fit the Stagg electronics? Or does the soldering iron need to come out the closet? [/quote] No soldering required, they come fitted with the same size mini-jack plugs